[Illustration: LANDING OF THE PILGRIMS
Of the fifteen historical groups planned by Brumidi for the frescoed
frieze encircling the Rotunda, the “Landing of the Pilgrims” is the one
in which the attitude of prayer predominates. This frieze is 9 feet wide
and 58 feet from the Rotunda floor. Brumidi was 72 years old when he
began its execution but he had drawn the plans probably twenty years
earlier.]
But this last task he set for himself was too great. Of the fifteen
scenes Brumidi planned, he finished the following six: _Landing of
Columbus, 1492_; _Entry of Cortez into Mexico, 1521_; _Pizarro’s
Conquest of Peru, 1533_; _Midnight Burial of DeSoto, 1541_; _Pocahontas
saving John Smith, 1606_; _Landing of the Pilgrims, 1620_.
[Illustration: PENN’S TREATY WITH THE INDIANS
The seventh group, chronologically, on the Rotunda frieze is “Penn’s
Treaty with the Indians.” It follows the “Landing of the Pilgrims” in
Brumidi’s design. It was while working on this group that Brumidi fell
on the scaffolding and was never able to return. The three Indians at
the right were left unfinished, the lighter background marking the spot
from which Brumidi fell.]
The artist had the seventh scene, _Penn’s Treaty with the Indians,
1682_, more than half finished when he fell from the suspended chair
from which he worked and was forced to hang by his arms from a ladder
until workmen made the rescue. The last few months of his life he worked
at his studio on the frieze cartoons. Edward Clark, Architect of the
Capitol, makes reference to the unfinished frieze in his Report of
October 1, 1880. Said he at that time, “But little progress has been
made on the frescoes of the belt in the Dome, owing to the illness and
death of the late Constantino Brumidi. Philip Costaggini, an artist of
acknowledged merit, educated in the same school as the former artist, is
now engaged on these frescoes.” One year later, however, on October 1,
1881, Mr. Clark made the following report:
“Mr. Costaggini has painted in fresco on the belt of the Rotunda the
“Settlement of New England,” “Oglethorpe and the Indians,” left
unfinished by Mr. Brumidi, and he is now engaged on the “Reading of the
Declaration of Independence.” It is proper to state here, that Mr.
Brumidi made the designs for these sections only in small size and Mr.
Costaggini has had to make the eight remaining full size cartoons.”
When Mr. Costaggini finished the work of executing the Brumidi designs
on the Rotunda frieze he had space enough left to accommodate two
compositions of his own choosing. Since his designs were never
sanctioned by Congress, Mr. Costaggini died in 1907 leaving an
unfinished frieze.
A third artist, Charles Ayer Whipple, was employed in 1918 at daily
wages to restore some of Brumidi’s paintings on the walls of the Ground
Floor Corridors at the Capitol and to make a sample painting on the
unfinished frieze. This trial painting he called “The Spirit of 1917.”
The Committee charged with final decisions concerning the frieze at that
time decided against Whipple’s further effort.
In 1925 Mr. Whipple referred to his frieze painting in a letter to the
Architect of the Capitol, a portion of which follows:
“As you know I painted a group of figures in the frieze with the
permission of the Library Committee, to prove that I understood the
ancient method of Fresco painting, that is, the method of Michelangelo
in the Sistine Chapel in Rome. The frieze is painted in that method and
of course must be completed in the mode of the great Italian Master,
that of “lime painting on wet plaster.” Mr. Whipple died in 1928. The
frieze is still unfinished and still of current interest.
On August 17, 1950, the President of the United States signed a Joint
Resolution, H. J. Res. 21, “To provide for the utilization of the
unfinished portion of the historical frieze in the Rotunda of the
Capitol to portray (1) the Civil War, (2) the Spanish-American War, and
(3) the birth of aviation in the United States.”
Each new effort to finish the Rotunda Frieze is a testimony to the
artist, Brumidi, and to his inimitable work. Should an artist well
schooled in the Italian fresco process not be found to finish the frieze
it is the author’s thought that the problem might be solved by adorning
the blank portion of the Rotunda belt with a memorial inscription to
Constantino Brumidi.
[Illustration]